Regional Victoria is digesting the carbon tax details which were released over the weekend. While some are concerned about the impacts it will have on industry and jobs, others say it is a positive change for regional economies. Hear from people in the La Trobe Valley, with its coal mining sector and power generation industry, along with members of the trucking industry in the Shepparton area and those employed by the aluminium smelter in the south western corner of the state.

As Julia Gillard begins to sell the Federal Government's carbon tax to households and industry, people across regional Victoria are trying to understand how the changes will affect their families, jobs and communities.

We hear a cross-section of responses about the potential impacts on country Victoria.

Concern about jobs is very real in the La Trobe Valley.

But Loy Yang Power chief executive officer Ian Nethercoate remains optimistic about the future of the brown coal-fired power station, which generates about one quarter of the state's energy needs.

He believes his plant is a leader in the field thanks to recent investments.

"There's been more than 50 million dollars spent to upgrade and replace some of the control systems," he says.

"I have no doubt that Loy Yang will continue to operate for some time, and I can't see that we will be a contender for the closure package that's been presented by the government."

What isn't so clear is how the transition will be funded.

"There is a shortfall in terms of the transitional arrangements to meet increasing costs for us. There's about 450 million dollars a year that we will have to find to purchase those [credits] and if that's in advance, that's going to be a difficult task," Mr Nethercoate says.

Motivation needed to find alternative to coal

Gippsland Trade and Labour Council secretary John Parker thinks that one of the key issues hurting the region is a lack of innovation.

"What I've said to the coal industry, is what they need to do is come up with technologies which is better than gas. Because if it doesn't come better than gas it won't get off the ground. What we've had for the last 10 years in Gippsland is a stagnant economy, they haven't invested.

"There is a price on carbon. We can sook about it or we can get on with the job. Gippsland has great resources and we have start looking at new technologies and new innovations. If we don't get ourselves into that race we will be left behind."

The aluminium industry is also concerned about the impacts of the carbon tax.

Fears for smelter future in Portland

About 30 per cent of Australia's aluminium production comes from smelters at Portland in south-west Victoria and Point Henry near Geelong.

The Portland smelter employs about 600 people and relies on electricity produced by brown coal from the Loy Yang Power Station.

Australian Aluminium Council executive director Miles Prosser says the costs added to the nation's aluminium industry will ruin its international competitiveness.

"By our calculation, the announcement will add about $60 [per tonne] to the cost of producing aluminium in Australia and that's $60 that we can't wear compared to competing producers in China.

"The way the policy is structured, that $60 will rise to $200 over the next few years so it's both a hit to competitiveness now, but also a rising hit to that over the next few years."

Mr Prosser says the projections take industry compensation offered as part of the package into account, but it's too early to estimate the number of jobs which may be at risk as a result of the carbon tax.

"I guess they're at risk but it's too early to draw conclusions about what might actually happen to individual facilities.

"We think the biggest impact of this is what it does to the overall economy, what it does to industries like this which really are the base of some of these regional communities."

Truckers concerned about tax hike

Australian Trucking Association vice-chair and owner of an Albury/Wodonga trucking business Doug McMillan says while a two-year exemption on fuel for heavy transport vehicles is welcome, he has concerns about the carbon tax's long-term impact on the industry.

"I have been in this game just on 40 years now and it's the toughest I have seen it.

"I really, really don't trust where we are going here. Our industry really has got no meat left on the bone it's down to bare bones and just operating. Eighty-five percent of our trucking businesses are like me that have got five or six employees and a lot of those will go to the wall, even though they get two years grace, it's tough times."

The Victorian Government has raised concerns about the carbon tax's impact on small business and regional manufacturers.

Packaging and manufacturing fears in Mildura

Ross Weightman, from a Mildura packaging and supplying company says his products will probably end up being imported because of the affect of the tax on the manufacturing industry.

"Our main cost in relation to product getting is that freight cost and that will go up across the board anyway.

"Our customers we supply will have to wear the cost and that goes right across to the end user.

"I've talked to a few of our suppliers since this was going to be brought on board and they are more concerned about Australian manufactures being less competitive with the whole world... With the carbon tax, it's only a guessing game to see how it's going to rate with Australia."

All clear from the clean energy industry

The clean energy industry is one of the biggest winners from the carbon tax.

Eight wind farms are currently operating in Victoria and another 28 have been approved.

The majority of wind farm projects are based in south-west Victoria - with six out of eight operational wind farms and 25 of the 28 project approvals.

Clean Energy Council policy director Russell Marsh says the carbon tax is a great package which will give the sector more confidence.

"It's effectively going to turbo-charge the deployment of clean energy technologies over the next decade.

"The package puts in place measures to support technologies that can be deployed now, so things like wind and solar but also is putting a lot of money aside for those technologies that aren't yet able to be deployed to scale yet so things like large scale solar, geothermal and wave power."

He says the $23 a tonne carbon price is reasonable.

"I think everyone is expecting that price to rise over time and the key thing will be what happens when we move to the Emissions Trading Scheme in 2015 but we have to start somewhere and $23 is a good place to start."

Concerns have been voiced about the impact a carbon tax will have on jobs.

Mr Marsh says the change will be positive for employment levels in regional areas.

"It should be a positive impact in that the jobs and economic stimulus that clean energy, in particular renewables, can bring to regional Victoria is huge."

Charles Sturt University's Institute of Land Water and Society climate change lecturer professor Kevin Parton welcomes a price on carbon but says it could have waited until the planned introduction of an Emissions Trading Scheme in 2015-2016.

"The point about carbon tax is we need to do something earlier rather than later in order to keep the costs down to a minimum and it is pleasing we are going to put a price on carbon as soon as next year.

"An Emissions Trading Scheme would have been better than a straight forward carbon price because an Emission Trading Scheme is a cap and a trade scheme and the government would have been able to cap emissions rather than just put a price on them, but this is a transition to a cap and trade scheme and probably politically the best we can get.

"I think that [waiting for the Emissions Trading Scheme] would have been better but obviously the government thinks it's politically very difficult to go to that step so we have got that transition phase whereby we have got a straight forward price on carbon."

Households are trying to work out what impact the carbon tax will have on their budget.

Upper Murray Family Care offers financial and emotional support to families.

Compensating the battlers

The service's chief executive officer Dr Luke Rumbold says based on the Federal Government's modelling, there will be adequate compensation for low income earners and welfare recipients.

"If one accepts the figures that have been presented, the most vulnerable people in our community seem to be compensated for the additional cost.

"For low income people, costs such as power are really important; because a lot of people who are elderly or chronically ill are at home full time so heating costs are really important. So if we accept these figures that they'll be totally covered, that's good."

He said it's too early to say what the full welfare impacts of the carbon tax might be.

"This is a very sophisticated, complex change, and we are going to have to suck it and see. Otherwise we're having academic arguments about loaves of bread. We really don't know and it's going to be interesting."

Environmental Farmers Network member and Shepparton resident John Pettigrew is one of 85 Australians trained by Al Gore as part of The Climate Project.

He says the carbon tax announcement is great news.

"Farmers won't be liable for any emissions and will be able to sell carbon credits. The biodiversity fund will open up opportunities for farmers to adapt, also the clean energy finance corporation. There are enormous regional development opportunities with renewable energy."

Mr Pettigrew said the announcement brings certainty to farmers, and the carbon tax could make farming more viable.

"There'll always be change in farming, but our major concern was that Australia's ability to produce food and fibre was at risk through climate change and traditional farming wouldn't be possible in the future. We really have no choice but to try and restrict those impacts."